Category: Meat

I barbecued this weekend. For those who think I just mean gilling hot dogs, I’ll have you know the lamb was on the cold side (on a bed of garden herbs, mostly lavender) was on for five hours and the pork for four. The chicken was more quickly cooked.

But that’s a lot of meat and meat is not something I eat a lot of. Sure we had friends over, but we also had alcohol and were playing Catan, so there were distractions from all the meat.

Spouse is English. Spouse like pies.

May I present, three separate fillings for pies, pastry to be supplied by Spouse.

First up, we have chicken in an Asian-inspired filling with Sriracha, Tamari and ginger

So I had a few days off, mainly due to the busy weekend, part of which was spent in pediatric ER getting the child’s head wound sealed up (she’s fine, I’m still traumatized.)

But, back at it last night with the last cookbook in this first round! At this point, my recipe following was going out the window. I forgot the sweet potato, ran out of asparagus last week, left the water chestnuts in the pantry, yadda yadda. But I did make the Mediterranean Lentil Salad again (before making tempura) for an event tonight, so I was a little done with cooking.

And the sauce? Garlic and ginger are acceptable substitutes for bonito and MSG, right?

Whatever. I had zucchini, bok choi, chilies, leeks and mushrooms.

I also decided to do some meats as well since I had bought beef and fish specifically for this dish. Chicken was added for the child (she had all of one piece and then half a cucumber)

Fried fried fried

ignore the ice pack.

So this wasn’t bad, it just took a while to prepare. I would have liked some plain rice to go with it, but did not plan for that.

We had a goose this year for Christmas. There was at least a litre of fat rendered from it, with which I decided to make pâté. There was heart, liver and gizzard include with the goose, to which I added some of the cooked meat, mushroom, onion, and spices.

Pâté ingredientsThe spices were nutmeg, black pepper and sageClose up of meatsMushrooms and onions sauteing in goose fatThey were cooked until beginning to brownThe meats were added wholeI did end up slicing them up while they cooked. The spices were added sometime around this point tooOnce cooked I added some half and half

After the half and half cooked down, I ground it all up in the food processor. I tried to get it all cut up without turning into a complete paste. Then I returned it to the pan to finish with a generous splash of cognac.

Ground pate finishing

Since I don’t eat this myself, I had the spouse taste it. He proclaimed it delicious but very rich.